Re: Poll: How important a goal do you feel is the "aikido" notion of defending yours

Quote:

Matthew Gano wrote:

I think the intent of not hurting people unecessarily is a pretty important thing. But please tell me what the difference is since it seems I don't understand.

I think 'intent' is too vague a concept to tell the difference between two styles. Using technical differences would make more sense to me. And I won't be able to tell you the actual difference because I know too little about aikijujutsu.

Quote:

Of course it's not unique to Aikido, but it's still quite central to it. In that situation, without that "accordance," you're not practicing Aikido, are you? Many techniques are identical to those of other arts. If I use shiho nage to crush the back of some guy's skull when I don't have to, is that still Aikido? I don't think it is. That's my point.

If you take a look at this thread http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7851, you can see that I have asked for a source for this "aikido nottion" and as far as I can remember nobody got any further than 'Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere', which for me isn't good enough. So perhaps this aikido nation was originally not a part of aikido.

Quote:

"Aikijujutsu," as a generic term, says nothing about protecting people, but Aikido, being more specific, does, insofar as I understand it at least.

If you're refering to the jutsu-do difference, I read somewhere that it's not that clear cut. So now I don't know what to believe anymore...

Quote:

I read this as an ideal to be strived toward while maintaining practicality. The term "minimizing" means doing as little as possible. The posibility is based on prerequisits... <snip>
When you have the time to figure out where to place your attacker safely, that's the time to do it. When you don't, you shouldn't waste your time on trying.

Those prerequisits lead to too many ifs; hence on a purely practical level it is meaningless (see my reply to Steven Imboden). I'm not interested in not harming the drunk, because you might have done equally well without knowing aikido. I'm interested in how to apply this 'aikido notion' when your aikido really matters, against four knife wielding attackers for instance.
And one typical reply would be "O-sensei (him being the ultimate aikidoka) could have done it." Well, aikido is not about wat O-sensei could do, it is about what you can do.